Quote:
|
More small electronics. The game is still virtually entirely based on the mechanical competence of the team - programming and electronics are wallowing in the dust. Let custom sensors be anywhere on the robot as long as they follow the FIRST rules of electrical systems - no grounding to the chassis, no open-air electric surfaces, etc. We could've done incredible trigonometric calculations with those optical sensors with a secondary basic stamp, if the sensors didn't have to be in the "black box" to be part of the package. And up the money level on those digikey parts.
|
I completely agree. FIRST took a big leap forward this year by allowing the custom circuit and I think that was an extremely positive move. However, being able to place sensors outside of the housing would really open up the possibilities in regards to what we can do with the custom circuit. The $100 limit definitely should be raised. As Al said, $150 or $200 would be nice.
I would also like to request that we be allowed some other way of enclosing the custom circuit. That BUD Box was rather heavy for what it was. Also, why limit the size of the custom circuit by requiring that it fit in a certain size box? Perhaps a rule that requires the custom circuit to be contained in a non-metallic casing would be appropriate. This would allow teams to buy or build an enclosure that would be appropriate to their application.